Customer Reviews

Database Processing: Fundamentals, Design, and Implementation (10th Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Price over $130? Whew! But Kroenke's text is comparable in price (when purchased new) with its major competitor, Hoffer, Prescott, and McFadden's 7th edition (HPM), with which I will compare Kroenke's text below. (HPM is by the same publisher; eventually all textbooks will be sold by only one publisher!) To help with the price, I will not ask my students to buy a supplementary text for the database we choose to use, but will provide a few on library reserve.

Kroenke's text is geared more to the computer science major than to the business information systems major. For example, Kroenke recognizes that mySQL is now industrial strength, and so includes a discussion of it. For example, HPM is 700 pages of fine print, busy diagrams, and wordy explanations some of which talk down to the student ("A 'term' is a word or phrase that has a specific meaning for the business"). Kroenke's is 675 open, clearly written, succinct pages. At my college there is a sequence of courses for databases, another sequence for software engineering, and a third sequence for system analysis. HPM tries to do some of all of three of these topics, thereby diffusing a database focus. Kroenke's text by contrast is focused. In fact, the apparently comparable length to HPM is misleading, because which end chapters you read in Kroenke depends on the database you choose.

As the publisher's blurb says, Kroenke made a wise decision to introduce (easy) SQL early. And I add that Kroenke continues to introduce hard SQL later, such as nested EXISTS for the computer science major. HPM introduces SQL later, and only the easy parts.

XML is becoming increasingly important to database users. Kroenke's treatment of XML is adequate; HPM's treatment is cursory.

The chief advantage of HPM over Kroenke is the consistent use of a really excellent Mountain View Community Hospital project from beginning to end, providing continuity and depth.

I have been using Kroenke since the first edition. (I missed only the second and ninth editions.) So this is a biased review, in which it is hard for me to shake my history of good experience with previous editions.

I am among those sad to see that Kroenke's Semantic Object model didn't catch on, but given that it didn't, I'm glad that he finally relegated it to an appendix.

I am glad that Kroenke's text can be purchased for only $8 more with a CD containing Oracle or SQL Server, although I will use mySQL.

In short, I'm still a member of the Kroenke fan club.

--Gene Chase

I have to agree with the negative reviews so far. This book is a nightmare! I'm currently using this book for class.
The author contradicts himself not only from chapter to chapter but within individual paragraphs.
He spends entirely too much time on simple ideas and breezes through complex ones.
I find myself reading through paragraphs thinking, "Oh, he's still talking about that? Why is he still taking about that?"
Then the next paragraph, "What the hell is he talking about!?"
His sentences are wordy and complicated. He has forgotten the basic structure of the English sentence. That being: Stick to one subject per each, please. Throughout these verbose outbursts, he combines terms that are so similar they cause confusion. As an example:

"The physical description of a semantic object domain is just a reference to the semantic object description."

This gem of a sentence is halfway through Chapter Four. However, since this book is so poorly thought out and written, I still don't know what any of those terms mean or refer to.
If I knew what he was talking about, I would rewrite that sentence. However, I don't. So I've given up reading and am now writing a scathing review. What does that tell you?
Thankfully, there are many figures scattered throughout the book to attempt to clarify what the author can't seem to. Unfortunately, none of the figures being refered to are ever on the same page. The student must read the sentence, flip the page, try to remember what the author was rambling about, flip back, ... you get the point.

All in all, this is the most miserable textbook I have ever read. And perhaps one of the most overpriced. At "this cost", not only do expect this book to basically read itself, I would expect it to teach me through osmosis while I sleep.

This is really not a critique of the material in the text since I consider it adequate as a beginners guide to database concepts. Due to my limited experience with database texts I cannot comment more on the actual material, but having read many other technical texts, I can say that the material and the examples provided are laid out poorly. The text will explain a concept, but if you are truly new to this subject, you will find yourself repeatedly flipping back and forth by a few pages to the examples and diagrams that they refer to. Correct this problem for the next edition and all's well.

This book in its 8th edition still lacks clearity. I have a copy of the 7th edition also.

Whats wrong with this book:
1. Chapters are too wordy, examples fail to fully clearify what the author is trying to convey.

2. End of chapter questions have no solutions to review questions/problems to verify readers understanding of material.
Companion web site is weak also.
Author offers no real RE-Enforcement of topic.

3. Seems to rely on instructors to clear up text material.
Which in my opinion is a very bad mistake.

4. I had to search out other resources for re-enforcement and claification of material.

5. The author writes a whole appendix B section on a software product that covers designing databases(that I will never use). I think if the author would have taken the time to do that for chapters 3 and 4. One read through would have been enough.

Bottom line if you have to read a chapter more than twice to understand what the author is trying to convey. Then its not worth reading and a waste of time. Technology curve is at a 6 month change over, you no longer have 2 years to learn a subject.

I was a beginner on the subject Database Principles and the course I had taken recommended this book to be followed. At first I was skeptical about the book but after the quarter heat caught-up, this book proved to be of immense support for the database course. I recommend this book without any reservations. This is one of the best books I have read on this topic.

A huge re-write is needed, the author overpowers the basics of modeling and industry used methodology with his semantic object ramblings. The author contradicts himself in several chapters, which are bloated with useless words and ridden with mistakes.

I was forced to use this as a class textbook, however I would not consider the book worthy of keeping for reference. Urge your professors to use another text - the author is simply fixated on semantic objects - to the detriment of the victims who have purchased this book.

If your professor insists you use this text, change classes. If you are considering this book for reference material - it's a waste, unless you are a fan of the little used, (if at all) semantic object modeling.

Summary - too little focus on basic entity relationships, diagramming, and normalization - very heavy on author's fixation of semantic objects.

It's disgusting that Kroenke recently released another book on the basics of databases - and did NOT damage the customers with the semantic object fixation that makes this book an absolute mess.

One person calls it a finger, another person, a digit, and still another person insists it is a phalange. What is the problem? They are all the same thing. This sums up chapter 3 through 5 perfectly. The author uses different terms for the same word. We are using this book for our Intro to Database class, and NO ONE is understanding it (there are two sections of this class, and the other section doesn't understand it either). My professor, who builds databases for a living, had to read chapters 3 and 4 about 4 times just to understand what the author was trying to say. I'm not going to say that this is a bad book, I'm just saying that it isn't a good book for beginners. It should be more for graduate-level students. Summary: Hard to understand, and difficult to read.

Considering that this book is the 10th edition, I would not want to see what the previous editions looked like. This book is full of mistakes, both editorial and technical.

Don't buy this book unless you absolutely have to for a class. If you do have to, look for the best price on a used book, don't bother to buy a new one, you will NOT want to keep it.

This book has some of the worst examples I have ever seen. The examples are so convoluted that there usually isn't a straight forward answer to most of the problems. This has been verified by looking in the instructors version of the book.

I have a difficult time learning from this book. The questions he uses are very difficult to understand and often are misleading.
The answer key is missing, so understanding or checking your grasp of the material must wait until officially tested. Which is now too late, the concepts roll into each other. His vocabulary, used to describe a condition, is incredibly vast. So unnecessary. Too many definitions, not enough examples where to use the concepts.
Bashes MS and Access to excess. Nothing in the instructions how to find SQL or install it or use it, so you are forced to us Access which when you query, is broken by some of his sample SQL statements.
Finally, many examples and conditions are explained along with his terminology which he says no one uses!! But you find this out only AFTER you have read the pages involved. Seems like a waste to explain a concept you should never use or doesn't hold true. And then he tests you on those concepts.

I had to buy this book for a Masters degree course. I think a fair amount of data is contained within the text but the organization style is not that good. The author drops hints that he has been writing this book for a long time and that it has helped some major names in the database world find inspiration... that's all well and good but a good book does this not make.

The price is obviously way too much for something that is not really a practical guide. Most of the people that buy it will likely only be buying it because they are forced to. What a shame...it would be much nicer to have a quality product to learn from. This is not it in my opinion. It could be done better.